Obedience entries have continued a steady decline over the past 10 years. A look at the statistics for the past 5 years demonstrates this fact.
- In 2003, there were 2,390 AKC Obedience Trials with a total entry of 139,650.
- In 2008 there were 2,480 AKC Obedience Trials, a small increase of 90 trials over 2003, but total entries were 122,076 – a loss of 17,574 entries.
Of course, the nearly 60% decline in total AKC registrations is not because Americans have turned away from dogs, but because the AKC has failed to produce a product or service that is of any use or interest to most dog owners.
The decline in obedience, however, may be due to something else, according to the AKC's PowerPoint presentation, entitled AKC Obedience: Now and Into the Future: a general decline in true obedience from dogs, resulting in more participants asking for "golf course-like" surroundings to avoid canine distractions.
Obedience has evolved over the past 20 years to a point that exhibitors demand and are provided with an atmosphere void of any distractions, including spectators...
17 comments:
Good! May the death of dog obedience as a sport come quickly so that dog training schools stop teaching it to people who just want a nice pet dog who doesn't pull on the lead and comes back when called.
The real decline can be traced to two things:
1) The introduction of the obedience-trial championship, which demands not just "obedience" but patterned behavior that's extreme, for example "heeling" that demands a dog walk in precise position with his head twisted to the right up so as to maintain eye contact.
2) The rise in popularity of agility competition, which is just a hecka lot more fun for people AND dogs.
To offset the decline, the AKC now has "rally," which is more free-form and pretty popular.
I wonder what the increase in Rally Obedience is, though? It is less demanding, faster, and quite a bit more fun because there is quite a bit of room for errors compared to traditional obedience.
I've titled a dog in Rally - it was the most fun and cheapest performance event to train for.
I wonder, though, because of the demands that exhibitors have made, if that isn't the reason for newbies not coming to the sport? Those diva like demands are most likely a turn off for someone already not participating.
Wellll tripes, why would anyone want to go to a trial where they're not welcome, because they're a "distraction"? I'll take myself and my money to the non-KC working dog trials instead!
Quite honestly though, too, I find that most people who want trained dogs have no desire to do anything relating to dumbells, jumps, or scent discrimination. Those are "fun" things that won't make or break a relationship, but a solid recall, down-stay and heel command are not optional for them. It'd be nice to see people taking the time to expand their dog's mind WITH challenging tasks, but I've found that there's little interest in that outside of the dog-club niche.
Roger's experience of the matter on which you touch briefly at the end, is definitely more than a little alarming.
I also think that there is a lowered expectation for titling Obedience trials as indicated by the preponderance of agility and rally events; less work,less precision is required and training is couched under the auspices of 'fun'. Not that either sport isn't demanding, but the demands for success are vastly different and more readily achievable by the average dog owner.
Most people are not interested in the precision (or the work) of obedience titling events and are more interested in making their pet a trouble-free addition to their household. As long as the dog doesn't maul the guests, eat the crown roast, chase the mailman, a precision, focused heel, drop on recall and directed jumping are not prerequisites to successful pet ownership.
As expectations for manners decline, limitations on public access increase, I think, because of these lowered expectations.
It's not necessarily a good thing.
Isn't much of the decline in "Obedience" due to the rise of Rally and Agility? I honestly only know 1 maybe 2 people working on CD's or CDX's while I can think of a dozen working their way up from to RAE's. I guess Rally is 'easier' than traditional obedience, but most of the people I talk to feel its more enjoyable for them and the dog.
I found the statistics on the AKC website:
http://www.akc.org/events/event_statistics.cfm
Each year's statistics are listed under "Event and Title Statistics."
In 2001, there were 2,185,510 entries at AKC sanctioned events. In 2009, there were 2,597,341 entries at AKC sanctioned events. While Conformation and 'traditional' Obedience entries have fallen off, other activities have increased.
Registrations have certainly declined at the same time suggesting the 'casual' owner may not register, but there has been little impact on participation in events by the 'core constituency' who breed and participate in companion and performance events. Earthdog entries, for example, increased by nearly 5 fold between 2001 and 2009.
According to the AKC, however, they lose $10 million at "events".
And what are they doing to offset those loses?
You can read about that here >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2006/09/mathematics-and-symbolism-of-misery.html
P
In fairness, the delegates stood up against the Petland contract, and rightly so. Having said that, if we want to have events to to go to, the "core constiuency" needs to pay it's own freight.
Not long ago, Judges screamed at the suggestion they should pay a fee to help cover the cost of the Judging Operations department.
In just the last few weeks the AKC launched the "Breeder of Merit" program which has as one of its pre-requisites registering full litters along with health testing and membership in a national breed club.
http://www.akc.org/news/index.cfm?article_id=4208
The alternative is for the AKC to raise it's cut of event fees included in entries particularly from some of the wealthier clubs.
Yes, Carolyn a FEW delegates stood up to the Petland contract.
But so what?
The Huntes were fetted at Westminster in the AKC's own box, weren't they?
And the Petland contract has gone forward, with Petland now having its own computer program which ties in directly with the AKC's to register puppy mill puppies. The full story (and the manual for the computer program) is here >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/10/akc-returns-to-petland-to-sell-puppy.html
Everyone who shows and breeds AKC dogs has simple turned their head away and whistled past it all, once again, haven't they?
The ribbon-chasers have made their peace with holding hands with the puppy-mill pushers. Anything for that little ribbon! The human ego needs to be fed.
As for the "Breeder of Merit" program, it is pretty far from solid and pretty close to entirely bogus.
To be clear, the AKC is still embracing breeding dogs for intentional defect (achondroplasia, brachycephalism, wrecked backs, etc.).
The AKC is still saluting inbreeding within a closed registry without any ceiling on inbreeding coefficients.
The AKC is not asking for the test scores (simply a declaration) nor are they asking for all of the tests (not that all the health tests cover anything but a fraction of the problems).
Look at Cavaliers, for example. The breed club just watered down the heart test requirement so now the rush will be on to breed dogs younger. See >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2010/09/cavaliers-crap-breed-that-will-stay.html Welcome to the AKC where the breed clubs are just trade associations of breeders and dog dealers.
The AKC could have had a veterinarian sign, on threat of perjury, that they had seen the test scores. Not done.
Instead, what we have are entire litters (not individual dogs) being registered without a veterinary check on the parents or the pups.
The good news, however, is that for paying a fee, the AKC will put your name on their web site.
Pay to say. Same crap, different horse.
P.
Yes, Carolyn a FEW delegates stood up to the Petland contract.
But so what?
The Huntes were fetted at Westminster in the AKC's own box, weren't they?
And the Petland contract has gone forward, with Petland now having its own computer program which ties in directly with the AKC's to register puppy mill puppies. The full story (and the manual for the computer program) is here >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/10/akc-returns-to-petland-to-sell-puppy.html
Everyone who shows and breeds AKC dogs has simple turned their head away and whistled past it all, once again, haven't they?
The ribbon-chasers have made their peace with holding hands with the puppy-mill pushers. Anything for that little ribbon! The human ego needs to be fed.
As for the "Breeder of Merit" program, it is pretty far from solid and pretty close to entirely bogus.
To be clear, the AKC is still embracing breeding dogs for intentional defect (achondroplasia, brachycephalism, wrecked backs, etc.).
The AKC is still saluting inbreeding within a closed registry without any ceiling on inbreeding coefficients.
The AKC is not asking for the test scores (simply a declaration) nor are they asking for all of the tests (not that all the health tests cover anything but a fraction of the problems).
Look at Cavaliers, for example. The breed club just watered down the heart test requirement so now the rush will be on to breed dogs younger. See >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2010/09/cavaliers-crap-breed-that-will-stay.html Welcome to the AKC where the breed clubs are just trade associations of breeders and dog dealers.
The AKC could have had a veterinarian sign, on threat of perjury, that they had seen the test scores. Not done.
Instead, what we have are entire litters (not individual dogs) being registered without a veterinary check on the parents or the pups.
The good news, however, is that for paying a fee, the AKC will put your name on their web site.
Pay to say. Same crap, different horse.
P.
It's a shame that people worry about the little things in the obedience ring, afterall it is obedience isn't it?
I have heard exhibitors complain about the distractions at outdoor shows. Well, if your dog is trained then a distraction should not be a problem. I think people, and I include myself in this group, expect too much because we haven't spent those 10-15 minutes everyday on the basics, sit, stay, don't you move a goddammed inch.
I like the idea of obedience, but I don't like training for the very stylized version that shows up in the obedience ring. Personally I think a dog and handler that can walk side by side both facing forward through a heel routine is more impressive and better-looking than the heads-up heeling that is popular. If I'm walking my dog at heel through a crowded street, I want the dog to see obstacles that I might have missed and deviate from strict heel to deal with them, not run into them because he's got his eyes locked on my face.
I also find it hard to train the long sit because I think a bright dog would lie down to wait after a bit. In every day life, that's acceptable to me so I have a hard time making the effort to teach the dog to hold the sit.
Also worth noting that the AKC now allows mutts, er Canine Partners, into some competitions - my experience is in agility. Compensating for lost income?
The sad truth is, many people want easy. Many people don't want to do anything that looks difficult. Rally is a heck of a lot easier, and people sure do like easy!
Not all obedience people want to trial in an environment void of distractions....I sure don't! But unfortunately the people who want "golf-course-like" surroundings are quite vocal.
I think part of the reason for the decrease in entries is because the same people win all the time, and leave either fourth place for everyone to fight over, or no ribbon at all. We have to watch the elite handlers always win. I've noticed that the trials these elites enter suffer from lack of entries as a result in subsequent years. It ends up being that this elite handler/trainer pretty much "owns" entire trials, and the low likelihood of that elite's dogs NQ'g. It is also hard to watch judges not deduct substantial mistakes from these elite-trained/handled dogs. I have even seen where a dog that "travelled" significantly in the process of the signal exercise to the point it was practically right in front of the handler at the signal recall point STILL placed when it should have been NQ'd. In another instance, a dog handled by an elite handler/trainer was obviously pretty lame WON the class instead of being excused by the judge. That happened in the last two months. And the AKC wonders why people prefer agility or rally, or something more objective. In yet another instance, and this was something I experienced since I was at the receiving end of another's bad sportsmanship. The student of the judge won the class after my dog took the wrong article. I was told that judge (fairly new judge of low-level classes) jumped up and down and pumped her fists in glee at my dog's failure. It was the last half of the last exercise, and that is usually my Sheltie's best exercise. It is very uncharacteristic of her to take the wrong article. We were carrying a 198.5 until that happened, which would have easily won the class and HIT that day.
My opinion...I compete and instruct AKC Rally and Obedience....I know those competing especially in obedience are aging out...just attended a trial for entire weekend in western Pennsylvania...not one handler was under 35!!And the judges as well were all middle age..most over 60..
Attrition maybe...disinterest by younger possible participants...yes...the newer sports and more choices...yes...the akc is no longer the only game in town...BTW I do trial in teacup agility...wxrl rally as well ...so many choices...the cost of trailing also has gone up as well...
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